Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Matter" to "Mecklenburg"

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Matter" to "Mecklenburg" - Volume 17, Slice 8

MATTER. Our conceptions of the nature and structure of matter have been profoundly influenced in recent years by investigations on the Conduction of Electricity through Gases (see Conduction, Electric) and on Radio-activity (q.v.). These researches and the ideas which they have suggested have already thrown much light on some of the most fundamental questions connected with matter; they have, too, furnished us with far more powerful methods for investigating many problems connected with the structure of matter than those hitherto available. There is thus every reason to believe that our knowledge of the structure of matter will soon become far more precise and complete than it is at present, for now we have the means of settling by testing directly many points which are still doubtful, but which formerly seemed far beyond the reach of experiment. The Molecular Theory of Matterthe only theory ever seriously advocatedsupposes that all visible forms of matter are collocations of simpler and smaller portions. There has been a continuous tendency as science has advanced to reduce further and further the number of the different kinds of things of which all matter is supposed to be built up. First came the molecular theory teaching us to regard matter as made up of an enormous number of small particles, each kind of matter having its characteristic particle, thus the particles of water were supposed to be different from those of air and indeed from those of any other substance. Then came Daltons Atomic Theory which taught that these molecules, in spite of their almost infinite variety, were all built up of still smaller bodies, the atoms of the chemical elements, and that the number of different types of these smaller bodies was limited to the sixty or seventy types which represent the atoms of the substance regarded by chemists as elements. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 42473
Author: Various
Release Date: Apr 7, 2013
Format: eBook
Language: English